


Beautiful Lost Girl

by loudmouthgeek



Series: Beautiful Lost Girl Verse [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Beautiful Lost Girl Verse, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-02
Updated: 2012-11-02
Packaged: 2017-11-17 14:38:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loudmouthgeek/pseuds/loudmouthgeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Quinn left McKinley and Lima after BabyDaddyGate. No one has seen her since. Three years later Rachel's star is on the rise in NYC when someone comes to see her show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rachel Berry was riding an emotional high. She had finished her first week in her first lead role. It was a little show, as off-Broadway as one could get and still be in New York City, but she was doing what she'd always dreamed of, so she'd be damned if she would complain about a small matter like geography. There was always time to make it to Broadway; she was only nineteen after all. She was dressed and ready to leave the theater. On the short walk from her dressing room to the back exit, she wondered if there would be fans outside waiting. There weren't always, once again it was a small show, but when there were Rachel loved stopping to sign autographs and talk with whoever was patient enough to wait. She couldn’t wait for the days when there would be throngs of people waiting to see her after the show in desperate hope of getting her autograph or taking a picture with Broadway’s Newest Sensation, as she’d hoped someone important would dub her someday.

She pushed the heavy metal door open and the cool night air of early spring in New York hit her like a shock to the system. If she was even the least bit tired after the show, she was wide awake now. She found a single fan waiting holding what looked to be a dozen yellow roses. She was tall and blonde and wearing a lovely blue dress with a black jacket over it and a huge smile on her face. She was standing further back than most fans stood, so she was clearly not a musical theater diehard or she’d have known she could come much closer to the exit than she was. Rachel walked in the girl’s direction and the blonde began walking in Rachel’s. Then when the gap between them had been closed greatly, Rachel looked her in the face and a stiff breeze could have knocked her over she was so stunned. She hadn't seen the girl in over three years and hadn't expected to see her again, ever. Rachel was suddenly grateful that the girl had her hands full of roses since it meant she couldn’t have a slushie hidden behind her back. "Q-Quinn Fabray?"

"Hi Rachel," she said with a big enthusiastic smile. Between the smile and the relaxed, open posture, she was so the opposite of what Rachel remembered of her that she actually looked back at the exit she had just come through, as she thought perhaps somehow the door had let her out into The Twilight Zone rather than the back parking lot. "It's really great to see you again," Quinn continued, "especially like this, living your dream. I mean, I know Broadway is your dream but I’m sure you'll get there. I mean, after a performance like that how could you not, right?" Quinn offered her up the flowers she was carrying but Rachel stood stock still just staring. After a minute or so Quinn said, "Look, if you still hate me for the way I treated you in high school, I completely understand. What I did to you was horrible,” she swallowed hard before continuing, “appalling even, as I think back on it… and I am so sorry. It is my biggest regret and if there was any way for me to take it all back I would. If you never want to see me again, I completely understand and I'll just disappear back into the ether and we can let our 8 million fellow New Yorkers help us avoid one another. You don't have to accept my apologies, but will you please accept the flowers? There isn’t a card or anything. You can just pretend that they’re from some quiet anonymous fan."

Rachel quickly shook off her shock. "T-Thank you, Quinn. They're lovely," she finally said at last, accepting the flowers, "and I'm sorry for leaving you hanging like that, of course I accept your apology. I was just so surprised to see you here... or anywhere, for that matter. I'm sorry, forgive the complete non-sequitur, but I am exceedingly hungry..."

"I understand. It was really good seeing you..."

"If you'd not jump to conclusions quite so quickly, then you'd hear that I am curious to catch up with you if you have time to join me," Rachel said, "There's a small, hole-in-the-wall place a couple of blocks from here. It's very good and quite affordable. It's a home-style Italian place with a surprising amount of vegan options. If you'd rather go someplace else, I'd entertain suggestions, as long as they have the aforementioned vegan options."

Quinn chuckled. "It's good to see you still speak in paragraphs and that you’ve stuck with being a vegan. Good to know that you haven't changed too much. Your little Italian place sounds great, but money’s not a big concern if you’d rather go somewhere more upscale to celebrate your triumphant first week.”

“I actually quite prefer it to almost anywhere else. It’s owned and operated by this older Italian couple, Antonio and Lucrezia, they’re fans of mine and they’re always so happy when I come in.”

“Okay, now I definitely want to go there,” Quinn smiled.

“Good,” Rachel smiled, “It’s just a couple of blocks this way, did you want to get a cab, or…”

“We can walk if you’re up to it. I know you’re probably tired after the show.”

“Actually,” Rachel said, leading them towards their destination, “I'm quite wired off of a potent combination of performance high and shock at seeing you again after years, so while normally I would be very tired, I find I am quite wide awake.” Rachel paused briefly. “So… you kind of disappeared very abruptly on us.”

“I did,” Quinn agreed, “That day, after we sang ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’ to Mr. Shue, we all went home for break, but when I got to the school parking lot, my sister was there. Apparently, my jackass of a father had called her to tell her what a disappointment I’d been and she flipped out on them and tore Russell a new one.” Rachel looked up at Quinn in surprise. “She jumped in the car and drove down here to get me. Twenty minutes at Puck’s to get my stuff from his house, an hour and a half at Russell and Judy’s for me to get the rest of my stuff and for her to rip into them some more, and eight hours later I was at their house in Toronto. Two days later I was enrolled in school up there. I lived and went to school there for the next year and a half, until David, my brother-in-law got a promotion and transferred here.”

“And your… baby?” Rachel asked timidly. “Did you wind up keeping her?”

Quinn smiled brightly, “I did, and I can’t believe I ever thought about giving her up.” Quinn pulled out her phone and lit up the screen to show Rachel the picture on her home screen.

“Oh my word, Quinn,” Rachel said, taking the device in hand, “She is adorable. She looks almost exactly like you.”

“Except for the eyes,” both girls said at once.

They laughed, and Rachel said, “Yes, those are definitely Noah Puckerman’s eyes.” She handed Quinn her phone back.

“Yes, sadly,” Quinn lamented, “she also inherited his propensity for getting into trouble.”

“Oh, dear,” Rachel’s eyes went wide at the thought, “I'm very sorry to hear that. What’s her name?”

“Maya,” Quinn said, “Maya Charlotte Fabray.”

“And she’s happy and healthy?”

“Very happy,” Quinn smiled, “we spoil her pretty rotten. My brother-in-law gets paid very well so only the very best of everything for her, and she’s generally healthy. Nothing serious, but you know, kids get sick.”

“Of course,” Rachel said.

“It took me a while to really grasp that concept,” Quinn said, “The first couple of times she got sick I was bouncing off the walls trying to come up with something to make her better right away and Charlotte, my sister, just had to sit me down like I was a toddler and explain that we had done everything we could, ‘we went to the doctor, we got her medicine, we’re giving her the medicine, she’ll be fine in a day or two.’”

“You love being a mother,” Rachel said. It wasn’t a question. Rachel didn’t have to ask, it was plain to see to anyone looking and listening.

“I do, more than anything,” Quinn confirmed.

“I’ve found myself looking forward to motherhood of late,” Rachel said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes, I’ve always wanted children, and I think now that my professional dreams are starting to come to fruition. I find myself looking more towards my personal dreams,” Rachel sighed, “which are sadly behind where I had hoped they’d be by this point in my life. The restaurant is just up here,” she pointed to a small sign hanging over a door. If you weren’t looking for it, you’d never have seen it. Quinn pulled the door open and held it for Rachel. “Thank you,” she said.

Quinn got the first whiffs of the place when she opened the door but when she stepped inside the absolutely mouthwatering smell of the place hit her full force in the face and Quinn honestly had to put considerable effort into remaining upright her knees felt so wobbly. When she regained her senses she saw a beautiful, full figured woman barreling towards them sweeping both of them up in her arms hugging them tightly. “Rachele, la mia stella bellissima, così bella rivederti. Chi è il tuo amica questa bellissima angela davanti a noi?”

“Mamma Lucrezia, you know my understanding of Italian is molto poco,” Rachel said.

“Sì, a million apologies,” Lucrezia said with a very thick Italian accent, finally letting them go, “come, come, we have your table ready. Tell Mamma Lucrezia who your friend the angel is.”

The three women walked quickly through the small restaurant towards a booth in the far corner. “Mamma, this is an old friend of mine from Ohio. Quinn Fabray, Mamma Lucrezia Benedetto.”

Quinn spoke first, “E 'un piacere conoscerti, la signora Benedetto.”

The girls sat as Lucrezia replied, “Your Italian, not bad, ma ascolta… Lucrezia o Mamma, no Benedetto, capisce?

“Si, Mamma,” Quinn replied.

“Bene,” she said, “I bring the vino. I tell Papa Antonio you are here.”

“So they’re fans, huh?” asked Quinn as soon as she was gone.

Rachel grinned, “They are.”

“Of course they are, but you also have a reserved table and I somehow doubt that everyone that walks in the door gets that big, crushing hug.”

“Okay, so maybe they think of me as family,” Rachel smirked. “So where is Maya this evening?”

“With her aunt and uncle, Upstate, visiting some of his family. I have a project due next week I need to work on this weekend, so I skipped the trip. First time we’re spending more than one night apart, don’t want to think about it. So tell me about you, what became of the Glee Club?”

“Nothing,” Rachel said sadly, “we lost that year at Regionals and the club was disbanded, at least officially. Most of us kept meeting whenever we could before and after school, on weekends. Matt Rutherford moved that summer. By the time school rolled around the next year, with the prospects of Arts scholarships pretty much nil, Finn doubled down on football which left him little time for Glee. Kurt started getting bullied pretty badly so his dad pulled him out of McKinley and sent him to a private all-boy school where he fell madly in love with the lead singer of their Glee Club, the now two time National Champion Dalton Academy Warblers.”

“Good for him,” Quinn said with a smile. Lucrezia returned and poured them each a glass of wine and departed wordlessly, not wanting to interrupt.

“We tried to do a private fundraiser to pay for the entry fees and transportation to Sectionals that year but you know how little Lima, Ohio cares about the arts. We didn’t get to go and one by one, people drifted away, me as well. Summer after Junior Year I came to the city to go to auditions and got a little part in a play, five lines and no singing at all, but…”

“It was a part,” Quinn finished.

“Indeed, it was a foot in the door and after that, I never looked back. My dads set me up with a small apartment, filed emancipation paperwork so I could live here on my own, and enrolled me in a private school that works with students who are working actors.” Quinn quirked an eyebrow. “They have far looser attendance requirements. So long as you get all of the work done and show up for tests, nothing gets counted against you. I still went most every day, since my part was fairly small and didn’t require me to be on stage all night.”

“Rachele!” boomed a voice from the doorway into the kitchen.

“Papa Antonio!” she boomed back. Rachel turned her attention to Quinn, “If you have a particular fancy or dietary requirements let him know, otherwise just tell him to bring you whatever he thinks is best. Everything here is amazing.” Quinn just nodded.

A giant, bearded bear of a man in a white chef’s coat set a basket of bread on the table and said, “Rachele, la mia stella bellissima, Mamma Lucrezia goes to your show last night. She comes home, she tells me you are molto magnifico, even better than when last we both went. I told her God, Himself, is not so good as our Rachele Bacca. Is she right? Are you outdoing even yourself?”

“Papa Antonio, you know I have a very strict policy of never arguing with Mamma Lucrezia,” Rachel said.

He erupted in an enormous belly laugh. He looked at Quinn and said, “Out of the mouths of babes. Wiser words were never said. A million apologies for my rudeness, you are Quinn, the girl with the angel’s face. Welcome, welcome. I am Papa Antonio. You know our Rachele from her homeland, yes?”

“I do,” Quinn couldn’t help but smile at the man.

“Dimmi, was she always so bellissima, so stupefacente?”

Quinn blushed slightly before answering, “Sì, sì certo. How could it be otherwise?”

“Indeed,” he said, “Now, I know of course what to feed Rachele. What have you?”

“As long as it has mushrooms, meat, and lots of cheese in it, I leave it in your very capable hands,” Quinn replied.

“Bene, bene,” he replied, and turned to leave, “I make your food.”

“Papa Antonio?” Quinn said.

He turned back to the table. “Sì?”

Quinn pointed at the wine glass in front of her, still untouched. “You know that we aren’t 21, right? I only ask because I don’t want you to get in any trouble for serving to minors.”

“Quinn, ragazza angela, you see on the television for the Olive Garden, they say ‘When you are here, you are family,’ yes?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“To this I say bullshit, because two reasons, one, family does not pay me for food and two, because family is always family, not just when here. Rachele, she is family, and because you are friends with Rachele from her homeland, you are family, and no one can tell me I cannot serve my family the vino, capisce?

“Sì, sì certo.”

“Bene.”

“So you didn’t know anything about Glee falling apart? So you haven’t talked to anyone from the club since you left?” Quinn just shook her head. “Wait, not even Noah?”

Quinn let out a heavy sigh, “Puck did pretty well for the first year. We planned for him to come up for her birth, but he missed it because I went into labor early and he was watching his sister for the weekend so he didn’t make it up. He sent money pretty regularly, presents often, CDs of him talking to her or playing music for her. Then Hanukah happened.” Rachel just looked at her inquisitively. “He wanted me to bring her to Lima for all eight nights, but I couldn’t miss eight days of school, definitely not consecutively.” Rachel nodded. “I offered to bring her down for nights seven and eight, even though I really didn’t want to go back to Lima ever. He accused me of trying to keep his kid from him and I got mad and said he hadn’t tried to see her or do anything for her and that if I wanted to keep her away from him, there was nothing he could do about it.” Rachel looked surprised at this. “How quickly you forget that I use to be a huge bitch. Anyways, I said all of that, he told me what I could do, and I hung up. That was the last I ever spoke to him. I should have packed her up and just showed up like I said I would, but I was hurt and pissed and I didn’t do it. After that I got money a couple more times and he sent this incredibly cheap looking stuffed animal that looked like it came out of a claw machine for Maya’s first birthday. That was it, the last contact I had with Noah Puckerman, almost two years ago. I tried to call him, his phone wasn’t in service. I called his mother and she said she didn’t know where he was.”

“He dropped out of school and went on tour with his band,” Rachel said.

Quinn rolled her eyes and said, “Moron.”

“Quinn, can I ask, what brought on this monumental transformation? You seem like the complete opposite of who you were in high school. Was it… is it just motherhood? Getting out of Lima? Getting away from your parents?”

“Those are some key components to it. There’s a lot more to it, but those three factors really, really helped.”

“Like what?

Quinn sighed, “It’s really not that interesting, Rachel. Can we…”

“Please, Quinn,” Rachel asked. “I find this new you very intriguing. I’d like to understand you fully, if I might.”

Quinn sighed again and ran her hands through her hair. “Okay, but I'm only telling you this because you asked so insistently, and because I feel like you deserve an explanation. This was not, I repeat, was not why I came to the theater tonight. Understood?”

“Under… stood,” Rachel said more than a little confused.

A third big sigh escaped Quinn’s lips. “I really hope this doesn’t make dinner awkward, but here goes. Rachel, I'm gay.” Rachel’s eyes bulged suddenly. “Yeah, and I had a huge crush on you in high school, and you know, I wasn’t raised to believe that that was okay, nor did I have even the slightest indication that anyone would be accepting of that, so I protected myself in the worst way imaginable, and once again I am incredibly sorry for that.”

“You don’t have to continue to apologize, Quinn. I accept once again, of course, however the first time was sufficient. And no, you haven’t made dinner awkward. If anything, I'm flattered. It’s just too bad that you didn’t feel sufficiently secure enough to tell me then. Who knows how things may have played out?”

“Because I had a shot?” Quinn questioned, “You-you’re…”

“Curious,” Rachel confirmed, “I’ve never… but only because I’ve never had the opportunity or at least not an opportunity I felt comfortable taking up. Brittany was very grateful that I saved her from being fired out of a canon and eager to repay me, but the specter of the wrath of Santana was too great.”

“Be kind, rewind. Brittany? Canon?”

“Cheerleading Regionals, Junior Year, insane Coach Sylvester wanted to fire Brittany out of a canon at great risk to Brittany’s well being. I called my uncle, a lawyer, and got an injunction filed against her. Sue thought she could skirt around it and fire another Cheerio out of the canon instead and she got arrested for Willful Endangerment of Minor and Contempt of Court, some other charges, and when police searched her home, they found…”

“The steroids!” Quinn said, “She got popped for possession?”

“No,” Rachel said shaking her head, “The volume of illicit steroids and human growth hormone they found in her home warranted much, much more than a possession charge. She was charged and later convicted of trafficking. She’s doing 25 to 35 years in federal maximum security prison.

Quinn said, “Please tell me she tried to represent herself.”

Rachel nodded. “The only lawyer she trusted… one Sue Sylvester.” Quinn had to laugh at this.

“Well, Brittany would have definitely settled your curiosity, one way or the other, but you’re right, you’d have been risking the wrath of Santana Lopez, and I know that was always enough of a deterrent for me, too.” At Rachel’s inquisitive look, Quinn explained, “She… Brittany knew I was repressed. She offered to ‘unpress my lemon,’ which I'm pretty sure was code for sex. Most things were with her.”

“So when did you unpress, then?” Rachel asked.

Quinn hitched an eyebrow, “Are you asking when I had sex or when I came out?”

“The latter,” Rachel clarified quickly, “I don’t and never shall need details of your intimate encounters, Quinn… unless I'm involved.” Rachel waggled her eyebrows.

Quinn choked on the sip of wine she had just taken. She coughed roughly, finally hacking the liquid out of her windpipe. “You did that on purpose,” Quinn said, trying to sound angry but she was smiling too much to properly convey that sentiment. Rachel sniggered at her. “The world will be less funny when you cause me to choke to death and you don’t have me around tease.”

“A million apologies,” Rachel said, smiling. Quinn smiled back, “So you were saying… Lemony Snicket?”

Quinn would say that Rachel’s wine was getting to her but she had drunk only about half a glass and even for her tiny body that seemed like not very much. Maybe this flirty playfulness was just part of who Rachel was now. Three years can make a lot of difference in a person. “My Junior Year I joined the cheerleading team at my new school and the first day in the locker room I was pretty much confronted full force about my gayness.” Quinn started blushing at her thoughts. “There was this girl, Marissa, she just had it everywhere, you know, boobs, butt, legs, face, hair, skin. The kind of girl that you just want to say ‘fuck you for looking that good’ and then kiss the hell out of… or maybe you don’t know, but anyway. I could not stop looking at her. She was ruler straight, so I never tried anything but that pretty well confirmed for me what I honestly already knew but just couldn’t admit. I went home and came out to my sister.”

“And she was accepting of you?”

Quinn nodded. “She said, ’Love is love, baby sis.’ A month or so later I met Katie Brooks. She just walked up to me in the middle of the hallway and kissed the hell out me without even introducing herself or saying anything. Her confidence was so incredibly sexy, and we fell hard and fast for each other. We were together until I moved here.”

“First love?”

“Yep, first and thus far, only.”

“Did you guys try long distance?”

Quinn shook her head, “No, I'm too tactile for that. I need to touch and feel, like all the time.” Rachel was grinning and suppressing a laugh with a quirked eyebrow. “Not like that, perv,” Quinn said, “Well… okay, like that, but not just like that, cuddling and holding hands and you know, sometimes just being near someone. I need that in a relationship, not just want it, I need it. I would get cranky when I didn’t see Katie for a day or two, so forget living eight hours away, in different countries no less. I knew it wouldn’t work, so even though it killed me to do it, I broke up with her before I left.”

“Mia belle signore,” came Papa Antonio’s voice, snapping the girls out of their conversation, “I have for you the most delicious food you ever will have. Careful you fingers, the piastre, they very hot.” The large man sat down what would most accurately be described as two platters of food. Combined the two dishes covered almost two-thirds of the surface area of the entire table.

Quinn silently mouthed the word “wow” before taking her fork to the mountain of pasta, mushrooms, cheese, peppers, chives, and meat sauce. She scooped up a mouthful, lifted and ate. The taste of it caused Quinn’s eyes to roll back in her head and a moan escaped her lips. Papa Antonia laughed and said, “Godere, godere! Mamma, più vino qui!” and walked away. Mamma Lucrezia came and refilled their glasses. She gave Rachel a small nod and departed without saying anything.

“So do you miss her?” Rachel asked.

“Katie?” Quinn asked. Rachel nodded her mouth full. “Not anymore. Not really. Not her. I miss being in love. I miss having someone to cuddle with. I miss having someone that understood me as well as she did. I… I miss making love to someone...not just having sex, you know?” Rachel shook her head bashfully, “But I don't miss her. I could tell she and I were never going to be a forever thing. My need to touch would get on her nerves and she'd say I was too clingy.” Changing the subject, Quinn asked, “Do you go back to Lima much? Holidays with your dads, I’d imagine.”

“Oh, no. I went back for the holidays Senior Year, and everything was more or less as I’d left it. Spent the holidays with my dads, visited some of our former fellow Glee Clubbers, most of whom were happy to see me.”

“Some weren’t?”

“Mostly just Artie,” Rachel said and Quinn quirked her eyebrow, “He and I dated for most of Junior Year. I was seeing Finn until he rededicated himself to football and started ignoring everyone from Glee. Artie was dating Tina until she fell for Mike Chang over the summer. Artie and I drifted towards one another, and as I said spent most of the year together, gave each other our virginities. In retrospect, I loved being with Artie, but I was never in love with Artie. He apparently felt otherwise. When I left that summer to come here, I left with every intention of going back. I honestly did not actually expect to get cast. I just wanted to give it a try, so when I did, I thought it was a sign and I didn’t go back until the holidays. I broke up with Artie over the phone which I know was terrible, but I didn’t want him holding on to something that wasn’t going to happen. He wanted to do long distance, but, you know, he’s a senior this year so that would have been waiting two years for someone I wasn’t in love with. I was forced to tell him that I didn’t love him that I never had, hence he wasn’t happy to see me. By the time I’d gone home my Daddy, who was a Sociology professor at OSU-Lima at the time, had published this big important research paper, or so I'm given to understand, and was fielding job offers from all over. They were tired of never seeing me but still wanting to give me my space, so Daddy eventually accepted a position at Princeton.”

“Go, Daddy Berry!” Quinn said, “So they aren’t far away at all, Princeton’s, what, an hour’s drive?”

“At most,” Rachel confirmed, “They were moved in by Spring Break that year, with them out here and the rest of Dad’s family making the trip for the high holidays, I never really had much cause to go back to Lima after that. I’ve kept up with most of the club to some degree, or at least kept tabs on them. Mike went to Stamford. Santana went to UCLA. That’s all I know about them. Finn got recruited by OSU but blew out his knee during training and now he’s back in Lima. Noah and his band are still on tour, playing for audiences as large as 10 or 15 some nights. Kurt is at The Sorbonne studying fashion design.”

“And ready to take the world by storm, no doubt,” Quinn added.

“No doubt,” Rachel agreed. “Mercedes, Tina, and Artie are graduating this year. Mercedes is, I believe, headed for the University of Chicago, Artie got into MIT, and Tina will be joining us in New York studying art at City College.”

“No kidding?” Quinn said. She held up the palms of her hand to display the various colored stains therein. “That’s where I am. That’s what I do.”

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up and big smile broke out on her face. “You’re an artist? Oil paints by the looks of things?”

"I dabble in different media,” she said, “I started off just doodling, pencil and paper, which I still do. You may recall that from there I graduated to Sharpie on bathroom wall, sorry about that."

"Yeah, what was the deal with that?"

"Big crush, remember?"

"Right, but why the bathroom...” Realization struck Rachel hard, “Oh, you..."

"Masturbated? Yes."

"In the school bathroom?"

"That's not even close to all that was going on in those restrooms," Quinn said, "I assure you."

"Didn't it feel gross? I don't mean the...” Rachel was still clearly uncomfortable with the word, “I touch myself like anyone else, but those bathrooms just seemed so unsanitary. I avoided using them whenever I could, sometimes holding it for hours until I got home."

Quinn looked contemplative for a moment. "I always felt more sad than anything else, like the pathetic kind of sad, masturbating to a drawing, a drawing that I made so that I could masturbate to it, but... well, wait until you're pregnant and your hormones are out of control and you're so turned on all the time that just walking down the hall normally is an extreme effort. Sanitation never crossed my mind, honestly. How did we get onto this subject?"

"You brought up the drawing..."

"Right, I was talking about art. My school in Toronto actually had art classes, as in plural, to take so I signed up and loved it immensely. Senior Year here in the city, my school had so many art classes, and I had so few pre-requisites left to take that I spent more time on art than not on it. Our apartment is covered in artwork, mine and Maya’s. My go-to medium is still pencil sketching, that's what I do to relax. My major requires that I try different types of art, among them oil painting, but I'm kind of really into digital art right now. I'm taking a digital design class right now and really loving it. I'm seriously considering making it my emphasis. Maybe I could get a job with Pixar."

"That would be very exciting," Rachel said. "I could tell all of my friends that someone I know worked on the new Toy Story movie.

"I think they're done with those," Quinn replied.

"You know what I mean."

"I do," she said, "What about you? Are you still in school or is the show big enough for you to drop out?"

"Oh certainly not, I'm at NYU School of Drama. Although, at the advice of my curriculum advisor and both of my fathers I am taking a lighter course load this semester while the show is running."

“Tisch? Not Juilliard?”

“As it turns out, Juilliard doesn’t have a musical theater program. They have you focus on either music or acting or dance. NYU has a program that allows you to work on all three together, and since Broadway, and the acting, singing, and dancing that entails, is the dream, NYU seemed like the more logical choice.”

"Sounds sensible to me." Quinn took another sip of her wine, finishing off her second glass. She excused herself to the restroom before realizing that she didn't know where it was. Rather than turn back, she just grabbed the nearest busboy's attention.

As soon as Quinn had gone from sight Lucrezia returned to their table and refilled their glasses once more. After her official duties were resolved, she plopped down in the booth opposite Rachel with a big knowing smile on her face. "Rachele, with the girls you have such exquisite taste. This angel you bring in here tonight, she is bellissima."

"While you know I have a strict policy about disagreeing with you, and you're certainly correct Quinn is a very lovely young woman, the prettiest I've ever known in fact, but she's just a friend, Mamma," Rachel said.

"You are trying to convince Mamma Lucrezia or Rachele? La mia stella, you don't bring your friends here. We beg you to bring them. We tell you always, bring your friends, bring your cast mates. You never bring. We have to go around you to invite your Papas to come see us. Then you bring this girl, this beautiful angel who shines like the sun at you and you tell me she is just friend. Mamma don't buy it."

Rachel was suddenly walloped in the face with a very real truth. She'd always kept Antonio's to herself. She'd raved about it to Kurt only because the boy was all the way in Paris and was constantly going on about all the French cuisine he was eating. She liked the idea that this was a place that only she knew about, well others knew about it too, but not other people that she knew. Papa Antonio’s was her little hiding hole. Why then had she brought Quinn here without even a thought, brought her here, in fact, when Quinn had offered to take them somewhere… anywhere else? Less than two hours ago, Quinn Fabray was nothing but a distant memory, so why was she now in Rachel’s booth, sharing a meal with her?  
Lucrezia left as she saw Quinn coming back. Quinn sank back down into her seat, took another sip of her wine, retrieved her folk, and went to take another bite of her food. When she looked down at the dish, however, she took in just how small of a dent she’d made in the mountain of food Papa Antonio had served her. “I know why you brought me here, now,” Quinn said.

“You do?” Rachel asked with a little too much force and a dose of fear. Her mind was still running in circles about what Lucrezia had just said to her.

“You brought me here to kill me,” Quinn said. She wasn’t oblivious to the odd tone to Rachel’s reply but she opted not to comment. “You somehow knew I was huge fan of Italian, so you brought me here so that man could serve me more food than I could eat in three days and that I wouldn’t be able to say no. I’d eat myself to death and you’d get to watch. Admit it,” Quinn finished with a smile.

“My diabolical plan revealed,” Rachel said with her stage smile.

Quinn cocked her head to the side and said, “Hey, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing, I'm fine,” Rachel said, a little too quickly.

“Rachel,” Quinn said, laying a hand on Rachel’s forearm. Rachel flinched at the touch but made no move to move her arm. “Something is clearly bugging you,” the blonde continued, “If you don’t want to talk about it with me, I understand that, but you can if you want.”

“How did you do that?” Rachel asked.

“Do what?”

“How did you just see through me without even trying all that hard?” Rachel clarified. “I mean, I have, in the past year or so, endeavored to dial back my ego but I'm a talented actress, a lot of people have said so, teachers, reviews, audience members, cast mates, so it stands to reason that I should be pretty effective at pretending but you just saw that something was bothering me.”

“When you are on stage and you are focused on what you are doing, you are phenomenal,” Quinn said, “Sitting in a restaurant, distracted by… something, not so much. Also, you’re much better at pretending to be an entirely different person than you are at pretending that you feel differently than you actually do. When you’re in Rachel Mode, you tend to wear your emotions on both sleeves.”

“You’d be surprised how many people can’t read my emotions no matter their location,” Rachel said, then mumbled softly to herself, “boyfriends.”

“Well, then they aren’t trying, not even a little, so you’re better off without them,” Quinn replied. Rachel was unclear if Quinn had caught her last statement or not. Either way she couldn’t help but smile at the other girl’s comment. Quinn dropped her fork on the plate and said, “I think I'm done with this. I’d offer you some, but you have your own mountain of food, plus, y’know, ungodly amounts of cheese.” Quinn finished off her third glass of wine and said, “So did you want to talk about it?”

Rachel, still smiling at Quinn, shook her head, “It doesn’t matter anymore.” Rachel set her fork down as well. “I believe I am done as well. I must say, Quinn, I'm very glad that you came to the show tonight. It has been wonderful catching up.”

“I’ve enjoyed it too,” Quinn said with a smile.

“As you’ve no doubt noticed, it is rapidly approaching midnight, and I understand if you have things to do tomorrow, however if you do not, I’d like to continue our evening. It’s been some time since I’ve stayed up late and just had fun.”

“I’ve got an art project to work on this weekend, but I'm just about done, I think, so the finishing touches can wait until Sunday, or even just tomorrow night. I doubt I’d be working on it tonight anyway. I’d probably just go home to an empty house and falling asleep,” Quinn knew she was rambling. She didn’t know why.

“Midnight movie?” Rachel asked.

Quinn whipped out her phone to search what their options were. “Mmmm, I don’t know. Nothing’s striking my fancy. Take a look.” She turned her phone so that Rachel could see.

“It seems I must agree. I do, however, have an alternate suggestion. There is a 47 inch television, a vast array of DVDs and BluRays, not to mention a well used Netflix account all sitting unused at my apartment, a few short blocks from here.”

"Sounds great," Quinn said trying not to sound too excited. She reminded herself that it was just an invitation to hang out and watch a movie, not a proposition despite a previous confession of being "curious."

"Okay, wonderful," Rachel said, "I just need to make a phone call very quickly." She retrieved her phone and quickly dialed a number. "Hey," she said into the phone, "I take by the noise that you're out." Rachel intently listened as the other person talked. Quinn could hear noise coming from the phone but couldn't make out a voice clearly and she couldn't help but wonder if this was a boyfriend. She knew that the jealousy she suddenly felt was completely irrational, but then more often than not jealousy was exactly that. It was dumb to be upset that this clearly amazing, beautiful, talented star-in-the-making had someone, but that was how Quinn felt. "That sounds really interesting," Rachel continued sounding fascinated by what she was hearing, "No, that's okay. I already have other plans tonight. You'll have to tell me all about tomorrow though. Listen, I'm going to have company over tonight, so if you hook up..." Rachel trailed off, as Quinn suddenly realized that this most definitely was not Rachel's boyfriend. Roommate? "Their place, right. Thank you." Rachel glanced up at Quinn briefly before saying, "Not sure, maybe. Okay, talk to you tomorrow. Love you, too." She hung up her cell and returned it to her purse. "Sorry about that."

"So you either have a roommate or you are the most understanding girlfriend in the world," Quinn smiled.

Rachel chuckled and said, "Roommate. I could afford to live alone if I wanted but I was alone my whole Senior Year and thoroughly hated it, so I sacrifice a decent amount of privacy for some extra cash and having someone to share my days with. Are you ready to go? Did you want to get your leftovers wrapped up?"

"Yeah, I'll reheat it this week. Maya will love it."

"You should bring her here some time. You think they dote on me, wait until there's a beautiful little girl in their midst."

"I'm sure she'll love it," Quinn said.

The girls got the rest of their food to go. Papa Antonio insisted on sending dessert home with them, an amazing looking fruit tart for Quinn and some manner of cake for Rachel. They said their goodbyes to the exuberant couple with promises of coming back soon. As they were leaving there was a rather pointed look between Rachel and Lucrezia which Quinn picked up on but couldn't quite decipher. Before she could inquire, they were back outside the restaurant. "While my apartment isn't far away, I think you'll agree that it would be far wiser to take a cab."

"Of course, it's nearly midnight," Quinn concurred. Late as it may have been, it was still New York City so flagging down a cab, even at this hour of the night, wasn't a problem. Quinn loaded in the back of the cab and Rachel followed her but fell over into Quinn's lap in the process. Both girls broke out laughing, neither was terribly sure why, but they both had giggling fits all the way back to Rachel's. They got out and Rachel paid the driver.

The girls lugged their mountains of take home pasta, desserts, and Rachel’s flowers into the building. Rachel's doorman greeted the girls warmly and sight of the large, muscled young Latino man standing guard made Quinn feel good about Rachel's safety. If called upon Javier looked like her could handle himself in a confrontation. Quinn prided herself on being able to read people and she'd have bet good money that he'd spent time in the army.

Once in the elevator, the girls set their loads down temporarily. "This is a really nice building. I'm glad to see you have an able bodied doorman instead of the retirees they have at a lot of places."

"There's an older gentleman named Maurice that works the day shift. He's retired NYPD, but I do take your point. I generally feel safer when Javier's here, which I suppose is the point since most home invasions happen at night."

The trip to Rachel tenth floor apartment seemingly took far longer than it felt like it should and for the first time all night, silence was awkward. Quinn didn't know what to do with herself. She wasn't sure where they stood. Glances between herself and Rachel and between Rachel and Lucrezia seemed to indicate... something. The imprecise nature of that something was what was troubling her.

The ride came to an end soon enough, and the girls once again picked up the burdensome load of food and flowers. Rachel took her keys in hand first. This was clearly not the first time she’d lugged arm loads of pasta home. She knew what to do. At the end of the hall, Rachel made quick work of all three locks on her door. They quickly made their way into an extremely spacious, open, well appointed apartment. “Holy crap, Rachel, how well does your show pay? The theater was crowded and all but there had to have only been one or at most two hundred seats in it.”

As the girls made their way into the kitchen, Rachel smiled and said, “I do alright but the apartment has been in the family for years now. It was my Noni’s, my Dad’s mother. She left the place to me last year.”

“She died?” Quinn asked.

“Oh no!” Rachel quickly corrected. “She just did what is seemingly required of all Jewish senior citizens.”

“Retired to Florida?”

“Boca Raton,” Rachel confirmed, “She says it’s lovely. I take her at her word because Florida is too hot and too prone to hurricanes for my taste. I'm quite fine here in New York, especially since we moved out of our previous place which in total volume had far too much in common with a matchbox.” Quinn broke out laughing once again. “I'm going to take some of the mountain of pasta down to Javier.”

“Is he vegan?” Quinn asked.

“Not that I'm aware,” Rachel said.

“Then he’d probably prefer some of mine,” Quinn offered.

“Are you sure? You have to split your with Maya undoubtedly.”

“Rachel,” Quinn said, “If Maya and I ate nothing but this for two days, we still wouldn’t finish it all, and be sure to take him plenty of the bread. It’s pretty clearly made fresh so it won’t keep more than a day in the refrigerator.”

“Good point,” Rachel said as she went about making a plate for her doorman, “Speaking of which, there’s plenty of room in our fridge for your stuff for the duration of the evening.”

“Okay, thanks.” Quinn opened the door and began maneuvering the bag of food inside.

“Hand me a bottle of water out of there?” Rachel asked and Quinn did, “Feel free to help yourself as well” Quinn did that as well. Rachel covered the plate with plastic wrap and said, “Make yourself at home. The bathroom is the first door on the right. Put on music, whatever. I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”

“If we’re lounging, can I take this dress off?” Quinn asked immediately shocked at her poor word choice.

“Sounds like a party,” Rachel giggled.

“Oh my God, so not what I meant!”

“Relax Quinn, I know what you meant. My room is the last on the left. Pajamas are in the top left drawer of the dresser against the far wall, the one my TV isn’t sitting on. Help yourself to whatever you like, but if you get into the wrong dresser and you’ll likely find something you won’t want to find. I’ve got my keys, lock the door behind me please.”

When she was gone, Quinn went to the stereo in the living room which already had someone’s iPod plugged into it. Quinn turned it on random and immediately recognized Bebe Neuwirth’s voice singing “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag” from Chicago. She didn’t have the history of Broadway committed to memory like a certain someone so she didn’t know off hand who the other singer was, but she liked it, so she left it. She walked to Rachel’s room and had to try hard to not snoop into the other dresser. She picked out a pair of blue pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She shed the dress in short order and contemplated losing her bra to make herself more comfortable but figured it might come off a bit presumptuous. She got dressed. The pants fit pretty well but the shirt left a good four inches of her stomach exposed. She looked for anything that might have been longer but Rachel apparently didn’t do oversized shirts, so everything was her size and she was apparently all legs… not that Quinn hadn’t already noticed that fact years earlier.

She made her way back out into the living room and began looking around. Rachel had a lot of pictures on display… like a lot, pictures of her and what looked like her cast mates, pictures of her and a pair of men who had to be her fathers, and a lot of pictures of the Glee Club. The picture from the yearbook that Quinn had made happen Sophomore Year was hung on the wall, an unofficial team photo, presumably the subsequent year hung next to it. As Rachel said, Matt and Finn weren’t in it, but there was a blonde boy with a Justin Bieber haircut and a huge mouth that Quinn didn’t recognize and Lauren… something had Puck in a headlock. Quinn couldn’t help but notice that pretty much everyone but Artie and Rachel’s smiles looked forced. Scatted throughout the room were more pictures, Rachel and Tina, Rachel and Artie, Rachel and Santana, who looked surprisingly happy to be in each other’s proximity, Rachel and Brittany, Brittany and Santana, Rachel and Kurt in a blue and red blazer that didn’t suit him at all, holding a very large trophy, Rachel and Brittany and Santana, more pictures of Rachel and Brittany, pictures of Rachel and Brittany that were clearly taken in Rockefeller Plaza at Christmas time, pictures of Rachel and Brittany taken in this apartment. It occurred to Quinn that Rachel had explained where all the ex-Glee Clubbers had ended up except for the one in all of these pictures.

Quinn heard Rachel’s key slide into the lock. As the door opened, Rachel said, “Sorry, sorry. Javier and I got to talking.” It was only then that Quinn noticed that she’d been looking at pictures for almost twenty minutes. “Don’t tell me you’ve been secretly a Barbara fan all these years, Quinn.”

Quinn was confused for a moment until she realized that “People” from Funny Girl was playing and she hadn’t noticed. Quinn shrugged. “I don’t hate her,” she replied, “the iPod’s just on shuffle.” Rachel nodded. “You’ve got a lot of pictures of Brittany up here. Is she in New York, you never said?”

“I didn’t, did I?” Rachel said, “She is, she’s at Juilliard.”

“You guys look pretty close in a lot of these shots. Are you guys… y’know, together?”

“No,” Rachel said, shaking her head, “The occasional drunken kissing at parties notwithstanding, we’re just roommates… and, well, you know, best friends.”

“Brittany lives here? You live with Brittany?” Rachel nodded as she sat down on the couch, Quinn joined her. “What’s that like?”

Rachel smiled and said, “You know how the world can really, really suck a lot of the time? Like you turn on the news and see war and famine and death and man’s random cruelty to his fellow man and you wonder what kind of world we live in?” Quinn nodded. “Well living with Brittany is like a constant reminder that the world can’t be that bad a place if people like her are in it.”

Quinn smiled brightly and said, “I bet.”

“She’s grown up a lot since you knew her,” Rachel said, “She pays her own bills and keeps her own schedule. She works part time at a diner near her school, and as is typical of her, everyone there loves her. She’s still fundamentally Brittany of course. She still loves to dance. That’s why we don’t have a coffee table. She still loves to cuddle, she’s still periodically flighty, and she still spends an inordinate amount of her free time seeking out ducks wherever she may find them, mostly in Central Park.”

The music changed and sound of Meat Loaf singing “What Ever Happened to Saturday Night?” replaced Barbara. Both girls simultaneously broke into wide smiles and Quinn said excitedly, “This is what we’re watching tonight! The ultimate Midnight Movie… even though it’s closer to one by now.”

Rachel pointed in the direction of the entertainment center and said, “It should be over there. If not it’s on Netflix. I'm going to go change.” Rachel stood up and started walking towards her room, still speaking as she went. “If you find the DVD, make sure to turn on the audience participation track so that we know the right moment to call Brad an asshole. Though we’ll not be throwing anything at the television!” She was shouting this last part from her bedroom.

Quinn laughed to herself and got up to start going through the DVDs which were a jumbled mess which could only be the work of Brittany. Rachel would have them all perfectly aligned in some precise grouping, be it alphabetical, chronological, or by star, but Brittany was a huge mess most of the time. This was just further proof that though she may have grown up, she hadn’t changed fundamentally.”

Quinn was taking her time sifting through the movie collection trying to guess which disc belonged to which girl. The musicals were clearly Rachel’s. The talking animal movies almost certainly belonged to Brittany. Footloose could go either way, as could Save the Last Dance and Black Swan. Flashdance, the Step Up Trilogy, and Breakin were definitely Brittany’s. The collected works of John Hughes she hoped were Rachel’s. The anime she assumed to be Brittany’s. The zombie movies had to be Brittany’s. Saving Private Ryan Quinn guessed to have been left there by someone else by mistake.

When the iPod switched tracks again, Quinn didn’t recognize the tune. That didn’t really surprise her; after all, Rachel’s musical repertoire was vast and deep. What did surprise her was when Rachel came running back into the room half dressed clutching a tank top across her otherwise naked chest yelling for Quinn to change the song. Quinn was intrigued… well, intrigued and aroused; there was suddenly a lot of exposed tan flesh on display. Quinn listened intently as she did her best not to stare. The voice was hauntingly sad. The lyrics sang about a girl missing from the singer’s life and the singer’s great concern about the girl’s well being. The singer’s voice was amazing. That’s when it hit her… the singer was none other than Rachel Berry. “Why would I change it? Rachel, this is you and I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sound better. I don’t know the song, though.”

Rachel twirled her finger indicating Quinn to turn around. When she did Rachel quickly donned her shirt and retreated to the couch once more. “You can turn back around.” Quinn did and settled on the opposite end of the couch. “You don’t know the song because I wrote it. It’s called ‘Beautiful Lost Girl’,” Rachel clarified.

“You wrote this? Rachel this is amazing!”

Rachel was uncharacteristically quiet when she explained, “For Regionals that year, I thought we should take a pass at writing original songs, and admittedly my first couple of attempts at it were, in retrospect, bad, but no one supported me in my efforts, at least not in front of the group and Mr. Schuester kept shooting me down. One day a couple of weeks before competition, I was flipping through my yearbook and I saw that picture,” she pointed at the Glee Club photo on the wall, “and I wondered where you were and how you were, and I hoped that you weren’t miserable. Then I just started writing.”

“Wait,” Quinn’s face suddenly flashed surprised, “I-I'm ‘Beautiful Lost Girl’? You wrote this beautiful piece of music… about me?” Rachel, her eyes not rising to meet Quinn’s, nodded shyly. “But I-I wasn’t lost…”

“You were missing from our lives. ‘Beautiful Missing Girl’ doesn’t have the same ring to it. Besides it sort of felt like you were lost, which isn’t meant as a play on the stereotype of Canada as being some great wilderness to be lost in, but rather that you were gone and never coming back to us,” Rachel said. “I know many of us thought of you frequently, and… worried about you. I didn’t know until tonight that you actually wanted to go live with your sister. I had thought you’d been packed off by your horrible parents to hide their supposed family shame in the Great White North.

“Shit,” Quinn said, “You did? Is that what everyone thought?”

“I cannot speak for everyone,” Rachel said, “but Brittany, Santana, and I all shared similar concerns at various points.”

“God, Rach, I'm so sorry,” Quinn was near tears suddenly. “I guess I just assumed that Puck told you guys that I was happy in Toronto.” Rachel just shook her head. “Of course, that would have required him to actually notice that I was happy and what were the odds. God, I'm so stupid, Rachel. I should have called… you, Mr. Shue, someone, and let you guys know that I was doing alright.”

Rachel moved herself to sit next to Quinn and wrap an arm around the brunette’s shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up too badly, Quinn. The door did swing both ways, after all. Toronto was only eight hours away. I could have chased you down had I been truly been determined to find you, but I never took the initiative.”

“That’s how you guys became friends, isn’t it?” Quinn asked, “You, Brittany, and Santana.”

Rachel nodded, “We bonded over missing you. Unlike mine and Brittany’s, Santana’s and my friendship never really progressed beyond that, and when I moved we kept in touch for a bit, but after a while it seemed like something I felt obligated to keep up, and I'm pretty sure she felt the same. Phone conversations became text message conversations which became perfunctory e-mails. When she moved off to college we let it drift away. I got one more phone call from her telling me that I had better under pain of death take care of Brittany in New York and that was the last word in the Pezberry chapter of my life.”

“Brittany and even Santana I get but why would you miss me, Rachel? I was never anything but completely horrible to you.”

“I think… I think I had feelings for you too,” Rachel said and Quinn winced, “I'm sorry if that… if that’s hard to hear. I hope it doesn’t make you regret any decisions you made about leaving. You did the right thing.”

Quinn nodded fighting tears, “No, I know I did. I wouldn’t have been able to keep Maya without Char and David’s help and I don’t even want to think about what my life would be like without her. The decisions I regret are the ones I already regretted, the ones I made to lash out at you, to call you horrible names, to throw slushies in your face…” Silence fell over both of them for a couple of minutes before Quinn spoke again, “Do you mind if I play the song again?” Rachel shook her head. Quinn stood and walked over to the stereo, picked up the iPod, located “Beautiful Lost Girl” and pressed play. The song began again and the tears that Quinn had been fighting won the battle and came running freely. She didn’t move, but rather stood leaning on the stereo letting Rachel’s sad, needful voice penetrate her completely. Rachel could only sit and watch her. When the song finished for the second time, Quinn played it again. After the third time through, Quinn wiped her eyes with her fingers and spoke again still facing away from Rachel, “I never meant any of it, Rachel. All the horrible shit I said about you, it wasn’t true. You were… are amazing and I should have told you every fucking day.” Rachel stood and crossed the room silently. “I'm so sorry I didn’t.”

Rachel’s arms encircled Quinn’s waist and she pressed a kiss into Quinn’s bare shoulder. Quinn’s eyes went wide as she turned herself in Rachel’s embrace almost too scared to allow herself hope at what might be coming next. Rachel’s next kiss was kiss was pressed against Quinn’s upper lip. She quickly closed her mouth trapping Rachel’s plump lower lip between hers. For a very long moment, Quinn was convinced that this was a dream. There was no way the real Rachel Berry would voluntarily be within a mile of Quinn Fabray, much less kiss her, but then she decided if indeed it was a dream, then it was the best of all possible dreams. Quinn took Rachel’s face in her hands and deepened the kiss eliciting a moan from Rachel and a gentle rock of her hips against Quinn’s.

That forced the better angels of Quinn’s nature to break off the kiss. Still holding Rachel’s face in hand, Quinn said, “Rachel, I need you believe that this wasn’t why I came to see you tonight. I didn’t come home with you expecting… whatever this is we’re about to do. It’s really important that you know that this wasn’t all some elaborate seduction routine.”

Rachel, fighting to hold her eyes open wide enough to reach her full expressiveness, looked Quinn in the eye and nodded in the blonde’s hands. “I believe you, Quinn, and for what it’s worth, I invited you back here because I was pretty sure I wanted this to happen.” Quinn smiled and leaned in to kiss her again but Rachel stopped her. “And just so we are clear, ‘this’ is you taking me to my bedroom and us making love for as long as either of us can stand it.” Quinn smiled at Rachel’s bluntness and leaned in to reconnect with her. This kiss was electric and sent tingling sensations running through both girls’ bodies. They swallowed each other’s moans. Rachel let go of Quinn’s waist placing her hands lightly on Quinn’s hips and guiding them backwards towards the hall that would lead to the bedroom. Walking backwards with her eyes closed Rachel was thankful that she and Brittany didn’t have excessive amounts of furniture in the apartment. Her right hand moved out to the side to touch the wall, hoping to get her bearings. They had only been in the apartment for a few months so she didn’t have supreme confidence in her spatial awareness. Her hand slid over one door frame which would be the spare room across from the bathroom, a second one which would be the hall closet, and finally a third which was hers. Rachel reached for the knob to open it only to remember that she’d left it open when she’d made her mad dash into the living room to stop Quinn from hearing her song. Rachel was suddenly very grateful that hadn’t worked out.

Once they were out of the narrow hallway and into Rachel’s bedroom, Quinn reached down and grabbed Rachel by the thighs and hoisted her off her feet. Rachel squealed in surprise but quickly wrapped her strong legs around Quinn’s waist and her arms around Quinn’s neck, never breaking their kiss. Quinn drew on years of cheerleading training to maintain her balance while holding the Rachel. She quickly crossed the distance of the room and deposited their connected bodies onto Rachel’s bed. No longer holding Rachel’s weight, Quinn’s hands made it to Rachel firm, round ass and grabbed hard. Rachel, legs and arms still wrapped tighter around Quinn, rocked her hips against Quinn’s waist and began pulling Quinn’s tank top up her back. Rachel let go of the grip she had around Quinn’s neck and got a better angle on removing her shirt. “Off,” she said, in between kisses, repeating again more forcefully, “Off!”

Quinn broke off the kiss and disentangled herself from Rachel who growled and the broken contact. Quinn quickly turned on the bedside lamp and shot across the room to turn off the overhead light. The room was significantly less illuminated when Quinn made her way back to Rachel, now perched on her knees on the bed looking slightly puzzled. “You don’t want to see my stretch marks, trust me,” Quinn said.

“I want to see you exactly as you are, Quinn. Although I’ll concede that this is a more romantic level of illumination.” Rachel reached once again for the hem of Quinn’s shirt. Rachel bunched up the thin material of the shirt as pulled it up Quinn’s lithe body. Quinn raised her arms so that Rachel could dispose of the garment. She stood in front of Rachel exposed save for a pink silk bra. Rachel leaned in and kissed Quinn on her left shoulder just above the collarbone. “You’re beautiful, Quinn, and breathtakingly sexy.”

“Me and my Freshman Fifteen?”

“Whatever,” Rachel said rolling her eyes, though Quinn couldn’t see her. “If you have The Freshman Two, I’d be surprised.” Rachel separated them and said, “Look at me,” Quinn complied. “You’re a very pretty girl, Quinn, I want you to believe that, the prettiest I’ve ever met, in fact. Don’t get me wrong, you’re much more than that. We wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.”

“Rachel,” Quinn said her voice thick with conflicting emotions, “please tell me you’re sure about this. I mean there’s been a certain amount of alcohol consumed, and if I thought for a second that I’d taken advantage of you, I’d…”

“Quinn,” Rachel cut her off with a brief kiss, “I had approximately a glass and a half of wine over the course of two hours with a copious amount of pasta to soak up the alcohol. Furthermore, it’s been over an hour since I stopped drinking. I’ve been far more intoxicated than this and still retained my judgment as to whom I did and did not wish to sleep with. However, if you fear that you will have regrets, as much as I want this, we can stop.”

Quinn shook her head emphatically, “If you’re sure you want to then I could never regret this. Even if we’d never met before today, even if this is just for tonight, I’ll…”

Quinn was cut off by Rachel’s lips mashed against hers. “And people accuse me of rambling,” the diva said after breaking the kiss. “Do you want to keep with the talky-talky or do you want to have sex with me?”

“Um, that second one,” Quinn smiled playfully.

Rachel flopped over on her back her head landing on the pillows at the head of the bed. “Good, then stop trying to talk me out of it before you hurt my feelings and get your sexy ass up on this bed and turn words into deeds.”

Quinn smiled mischievously and pounced on Rachel jumping from the floor to land perfectly above Rachel. Once again she thanked her years as a cheerleader for her agility and grace. Rachel smiled sexily at her and Quinn latched onto Rachel’s neck. Rachel groaned and pulled Quinn tighter with her left hand while reaching to undo Quinn’s bra with her right. Rachel was always good at multi-tasking. Quinn let go and sat up straddling Rachel’s thighs. As she did so Rachel’s hands went straight to Quinn’s breasts and Quinn groaned loudly when Rachel started tweaking her nipples. “Motherhood suits you Quinn, especially in this general area.” Quinn shuttered at the attention Rachel was giving her. Quinn’s hands went into her own hair, arms raised, elbows pointed out to give Rachel unrestricted access to her chest. Rachel smirked, “I think someone has extremely sensitive nipples. That will be fun information to have for all future encounters.”

Even through her arousal, Quinn couldn’t help but register the fact that Rachel wanted there to be future encounters. She gripped Rachel’s hands with her own effectively pinching her own nipples with Rachel’s fingers. “Yessssss,” Quinn hissed. She knew she was close already, knew that just another minute or two of this and she would explode but she wanted this feeling to last… possibly for hours if she could. “Fair’s fair, Rach. I’ll have that shirt now,” Quinn smiled and she reached for the bottom hem of the garment. Rachel propped herself up on her elbows to let Quinn slide it up over her stomach… her sexy, tan, toned stomach. Rachel held her position not letting Quinn remove the shirt. “Come on, Rachel,” Quinn said in frustration, after another moment of her not moving she said, “Pleeeeease?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely, Quinn,” Rachel sat up and Quinn pulled the shirt over her head.

Due to their height disparity, Rachel was at eye level with Quinn’s breasts and couldn’t help herself. While Quinn was trying to throw Rachel’s shirt away, Rachel attacked Quinn’s nipples once more, the left with her mouth and tongue, the right with her hand and fingers. The amazing and overwhelming sensation coupled with the suddenness of said sensation had Quinn teetering on the edge already, so much for lasting hours. “Oh God, Rachel. Fuck!”

“If you insist,” Rachel said as she slid her free hand into Quinn’s pants, under her panties, and over her red hot center brushing roughly over Quinn’s achingly swollen clit. Quinn’s body convulsed and before she knew what to think Rachel had buried two fingers inside her. Rachel set a steady pace sliding in a out of Quinn the heel of her palm hitting Quinn’s clit with each thrust all the while keeping dedicated attention to Quinn’s breasts. Again, Rachel was a hell of a multi-tasker, and only moments later Quinn’s whole body convulsed. Her walls clinched around Rachel’s fingers and both of her hands pulled Rachel’s mouth closer against her breast as Quinn’s orgasm hit her like a tidal wave. She groaned loudly and shouted several incoherent things with Rachel’s name peppered in liberally. Rachel continued to work in and out of Quinn, slowly letting her come down. Quinn’s nipple slipped from her mouth as Quinn wrapped her arms around Rachel’s head and pressed a kiss into the top of it. “Quinn,” Rachel said withdrawing her hand, “I don’t know if you noticed but you appear to have come in your pants.”

“Pretty sure they’re your pants,” Quinn countered.

“Oh, that’s right,” Rachel said excitedly, “That just makes it even hotter.”

“Sorry,” Quinn said as she released her death grip on Rachel’s head.

Rachel’s brow dropped in confusion as she lay back down. “For what?”

“For being the lesbian equivalent of a two pump chump,” Quinn said.

“I never took you for a ‘one and done’ type of girl, Quinn.”

“Some girls get upset at you coming on them right away, accuse you of being as bad as guys,” Quinn said.

“Quinn, angel,” Rachel smiled up at her, “I was trying to get you off. Watching you squirm and all the little noises you made when I was playing with your nipples were just so unbelievably sexy that I couldn’t resist seeing what you look like when you come, which I didn’t actually get to see, but the night is still young. One of the things that had always been so appealing to me about sex with another woman was the potential for unlimited returns.” Quinn’s expression brightened considerably. “However, if you still feel bad, I’d be happy to let you make it up to me by going down on me. I have never had an orgasm with someone’s mouth on me before.”

Quinn smirked and climbed off of Rachel. “Just think,” she said, “that’s the last time you are ever going to be able to say that and it be true.” Rachel moaned in anticipation as both hers and Quinn’s hands went to the waist of her pajama pants and pushed/pulled them down. When the sight of Rachel’s bare, neatly trimmed pussy came into view Quinn froze while Rachel continued to divest herself of the last of her clothes. “Commando, Rach?”

“I told you,” Rachel said sitting up to pull her legs free of the pants, “I knew when I invited you here that I wanted this. Undergarments just seemed illogical at that point.” Rachel rolled over to throw the pants in the hamper and Quinn caught a glimpse of Rachel from the back and instantly Quinn was wet again.

Quinn maneuvered quickly over to Rachel and quickly grabbed Rachel’s ass in both hands. “Holy shit, Rachel! Do you know how fucking amazing your ass is? God, it’s like a damn work of art. This ass should have its own medium sized cult dedicated exclusively to its worship.”

Rachel rolled over onto her back, her hands behind her head, legs crossed at the ankles. Quinn knew she was practically drooling at the sight. She would have compared Rachel with some ancient mythological goddess except that at the moment she was having trouble recalling any of their names… as well as her own. She may have also forgotten that she was supposed to breathe occasionally. “Fair’s fair, Quinn,” Rachel echoed, “I’ll have those pants now.” Quinn laughed as she pushed both her pants and panties down and off in quick order. When Quinn looked back at Rachel the girl had an eyebrow hiked. “So exactly where are these alleged stretch marks, Quinn?” Quinn just snorted at the preposterousness of the question and indicated her thighs. Rachel crawled across the bed on all fours, which may have been the sexiest thing Quinn had ever seen. After a close visual inspection, Rachel rose up to her knees to come face to face with the blonde and said, “You are a crazy person, Quinn Fabray. You have no stretch marks. You are a beautiful, perfect, porcelain goddess just as I’ve always thought, fully worthy of worship in your own right.”

Quinn smiled brightly and mashed her lips against Rachel’s. Rachel’s firm breasts pressed against Quinn’s and the tightening sensation in Quinn’s abdomen was wonderful and painful all at once. She felt her right hand side quickly back down to Rachel’s butt again and grip one cheek hard. Rachel moaned the sexiest moan ever and Quinn broke away, “Wasn’t I meant to be kissing you somewhere else right now, my beautiful star?”

“Too right you are,” Rachel agreed before wrapping her arms around Quinn’s waist and tipping herself over backward. Quinn managed to get her hands down on either side of Rachel’s head to keep Rachel from taking the full brunt of Quinn’s weight falling on her. Both girls laughed into another kiss on the lips.

Quinn quickly migrated her kisses down Rachel’s neck, onto her upper chest, through the valley between her breasts. Quinn breathed in and was intoxicated by the scent of Rachel, lavender body wash, Italian food, and slight smell of sweat from their evening/early morning’s activities. Quinn thought it was her favorite smell ever. Missing only a single beat, Quinn trailed kisses down Rachel’s stomach, stopping to tease Rachel’s belly button with her tongue for a few seconds. “Oops, wrong hole,” Quinn joked and Rachel laughed underneath the resumed kisses. Arriving at her intended destination, Quinn darted her tongue out and lightly grazed the edges of Rachel’s folds. This was met by a sharp intake of breath by the other girl. Rachel’s hand fisted in Quinn’s hair trying to pull her where Rachel needed her, but Quinn resisted continuing to tease Rachel’s entrance with extremely light licks and kisses.

“Omigod, Quinn if you don’t stop teasing me, I'm going to fucking die. I need your mouth on me, please, Quinn, fuck.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely, Rachel,” Quinn echoed before planting her lips on Rachel’s stiff bundle of nerves, sucking hard. Rachel moaned loudly and arched her back pressing her center hard against Quinn’s mouth. Rachel felt herself knotting up quickly, she was about to come undone in record time, faster even than Quinn had, but just before she could Quinn let her go. Rachel pressed herself against Quinn and growled at the lack of contact. Rachel looked down at Quinn to see the blonde looking back up at her smirking. She snaked her hands under Rachel’s legs and wrapped her arms around Rachel’s thighs before returning her attention to Rachel’s sex. She licked up and down the length of Rachel before sliding her tongue into Rachel’s soaking wet folds. Rachel squirmed and trashed on the bed and held Quinn close to her.

Rachel’s heart was hammering in her chest and her breath was ragged and shallow. “Oooooooh, shit, Quinn. Use your fingers, suck on my clit, make me come. Fuck, I need to come so bad.” Quinn didn’t do any of that, but rather just continued what she was doing and looked up at Rachel as the brunette got continually more and more worked up. “Fuck, Quinn, please!” she screamed. Quinn quickly sucked the hard nub between her lips once more as she surprised even herself by sliding three finders into Rachel who gasped in surprise, then groaned at the sensation. “Fuck, I feel so full. God, that feels great.” Rachel thrust her hips in time with Quinn and just a minute later her walls constricted on Quinn’s fingers and she came undone. “Shit… Quinn… yeeeeees!” The sights and sounds of Rachel’s coming triggered Quinn’s second release of the night which surprised Quinn since she’d never gotten off without any sort of tactile stimulation before, she directed her moans of ecstasy into Rachel’s pussy which set her off yet again, even before her first orgasm had fully subsided.

Quinn moved up the bed to lay next to Rachel pulling the tiny girl’s naked form against hers wrapping Rachel up in her arms, holding her as the aftershocks of her orgasm worked their way through her petite body. “Rachel,” Quinn whispered into the girl’s ear, “you are so unbelievably sexy when you come I can’t even describe it. I got off just watching you get off. God it was beautiful.”

The girls lay together in silence for a while thoroughly enjoying the sensation of bare skin against bare skin taking in one another’s scent and running hands absently along one another’s bodies and just experiencing one another. Rachel was the one to break the silence, “Quinn, I know you have a lot in your life between being an art student and a mother, but I want to ask, can this not just be a one night thing?”

“I really don’t do the ‘fuck buddies’ thing, Rachel, so unless you’re talking about being my girlfriend…”

“And, if I am?” Rachel asked.

Quinn released her grip on Rachel and said, “Turn over, Rachel. Look at me.” She did. “You really… after everything that’s happened between us, after everything that I did to you… you still want to be with me, because I can never make the memories of our past go away.”

“Of course you can’t, but it’s the past. It was years ago and you’ve already made not one or two but three painfully honest apologies. I can’t hold the past against you, especially when you are so clearly not that girl anymore. That was my very first impression of you when I saw you this evening. Your big sweet smile and your genuine happiness at seeing me, I couldn’t believe how different you seemed. So the past is the past, and right now I'm only interested in the present where we are now and the future, both the immediate future wherein we have more mind blowing sex and the near future where we make the effort to find time in our busy lives for one another. Agree or disagree?”

“Agree,” Quinn said without hesitation.

“Good, because I'm pretty sure I'm already falling for you,” Rachel said.

“I fell for you the second I heard your song,” Quinn replied.


	2. Epilogue

Rachel and Quinn had finally fallen asleep sometime after three in the morning bodies and legs tangled together. Both girls slept better than they had in a long time, but Quinn hadn’t slept later than eight in over three years, so like clockwork she awoke far too soon. Rachel looked beautiful and peaceful and Quinn wanted to wake up just like this every morning. She knew logically she wouldn’t be able to even though they’d agreed to try their hand a relationship, but it was still a beautiful dream. Gently as she could, Quinn disentangled herself from Rachel and quickly made her way to the en suite bathroom. After using the toilet, Quinn checked herself out in the mirror to find she was having a monumentally bad hair morning, JBF hair combined with bed head. It wasn’t pretty. She attempted to brush it out as best she could but she knew she was going to need a shower to fix it properly.

Before that, however, Quinn needed coffee. She’d seen a coffee maker in the kitchen the night before so she hoped that meant there was coffee to go along with it. She found an elastic band and quickly made a loose ponytail of her messy hair. Quietly she crept back into the bedroom and quickly retrieved her underwear, the tank top she borrowed last night and the pajama pants that Rachel had worn briefly. Quinn judged her panties to smell too much like sex to wear this morning, so she went commando as Rachel had last night in these same pants. The thought of which was verging on making the pants smell too much like sex as well.

Quinn made sure to leave her dress and cell phone laying in plain sight so Rachel wouldn’t think she’d run out in the early morning hours. Just to make sure, Quinn found a note pad and a pen and wrote out, “Need coffee and breakfast. If you wake up alone, I'm sorry but you’re too cute when you’re sleeping to wake up! XO Quinn.” She left the notepad on the pillow where her head had been a few minutes earlier and headed for the kitchen.

Quinn made the left into the kitchen and began looking through cabinets. She was startled by a voice coming from the living room, “Hey, Q,” Brittany said as casually as if she’d seen Quinn yesterday rather than three years ago. Quinn turned around to see her old friend standing in the living room in tight black and pink workout clothes iPod earbuds dangling over her collarbones. “Whacha lookin for?”

“Coffee,” she said.

“Top shelf in the fridge,” she said, “and use the water in the filter picture thing-y. It comes out of the tap kinda gross.”

“Okay, thanks,” Quinn said, “You want some?”

“Coffee?” Brittany asked and Quinn nodded, “No thanks, I don’t drink it. It makes me feel funny, oh, but would you put the tea kettle on, please? There should already be water in it.”

“Sure,” Quinn said as she looked across the counters to the stove finally locating the rust-red colored kettle sitting on the back burner. She lifted it experimentally to confirm that there was indeed water inside. She turned the burner on and the retrieved the coffee grounds and water jug out of the fridge and went about starting the coffee. Quinn’s instincts took over and she started doing what she would normally do next, and looking at what they had to make for breakfast for Maya. Then she remembered that Maya was in Dutchess County with her sister. Quinn suddenly didn’t know what to do with her morning. She could go back to bed with Rachel, but the coffee would be ready in just a moment, so then she’d have to force herself back out of bed. “Hey, Britt, what does Rachel like to eat for breakfast?”

“Lots of stuff,” Brittany said. The dancer was now down in the floor with her legs spread impossibly wide her torso stretched to one side. The amazing flexibility on display by the admittedly very sexy blonde girl made Quinn momentarily regret passing up the opportunity to “unpress” in high school. “She usually just has a bagel on the way to wherever, but her favorite is vegan crepes.”

“Okay, does she use a recipe or doesn’t just make them from memory?”

“From memory, I think,” Brittany said. “My laptop is there on the counter if you need to look something up.”

“Thanks, Britt,” Quinn said as she began searching the web. It struck her how casual everything with Brittany was. She’d somehow expected a million questions and having to once again recount the last three years of her life. Instead, Brittany seemed entirely unfazed by it all, as though old friends appeared in her apartment and started making breakfast every day. “So… you don’t really seem all that surprised to see me here.”

Brittany smiled and laughed as she stood up. She grabbed a nearby towel and dabbed at her sweaty body finally saying, “I was way more surprised when I got home at like 2 and heard Rachel screaming your name.” Quinn’s face turned bright read. “I mean, at first, I didn’t know it was you in there, I mean there are other Quinn’s in the world, right, but Rach doesn’t usually just randomly bring people home and I know she isn’t seeing anyone… or y’know, maybe she is now, but not before, and I knew you guys both liked each other at different times in the past, so I just kinda guessed that you showed back up in her life and things wound up going really well.” Brittany walked over to the stove and pulled her tea kettle off the burner just as it started to whistle. She pulled a stylish looking purple tea cup out of a cabinet and a box of tea out of another. She then pulled out a pair of similar looking coffee mugs from the first cabinet and left them sitting next to the coffee maker.

“Sorry, you had to hear that,” Quinn said as she started locating ingredients.

Brittany just shrugged and said, “It sounded like it was pretty hot to me. I mean I didn’t hang around to listen or anything. That would have been totally weird. Just changed clothes and went back out to the coffee shop across the street, had a cup of tea, brought a coffee back to Javier. We talked for a bit. He showed me pictures of his kids. Oh, yeah, how’s Maya?”

Quinn quietly making crepe batter and listening to her old friend ramble smiled and replied, “She’s wonderful. She’s upstate visiting my brother-in-law’s family. I, uh, I haven’t seen her in two days and I'm really not use to that, but she’s having fun so I try to be happy about that.”

“You’re not exactly sitting home alone, yourself, Q,” Brittany said steeping her tea.

“That’s true,” Quinn laughed as she began to pour batter into a pan. She quickly poured herself some coffee and stirred in three spoonfuls of sugar. “How late does she usually sleep?”

Brittany glanced at the time on the stove and said, “Normally she sleeps in the morning after a show, usually until about now, but you guys had a big night after the show last night, so there’s no telling. So does you making breakfast mean you guys are like dating now?”

“Yeah,” Quinn confirmed, “we’re going to give it a shot anyway. See how it goes.”

“That’s so awesome,” Brittany gushed, “Once I knew you guys both liked each other, I always thought you’d be really good together. Does that mean that we get to meet Maya, cuz I always wondered what she was like? Like Puck almost never talked about her and I only ever saw one picture of her one time. Is being a mom awesome? I totally want kids. Kids are always so much fun.”

Quinn flipped the crepes and set about chopping up a banana and said, “Being a mom is incredibly awesome. Watching that little girl grow up it’s…” Quinn bit her lip and shook her head, “I can’t describe it. It’s amazing. You will be an amazing mother someday, I'm sure of it, and of course you get to meet Maya. She’ll be back in the city late Sunday, we can figure out a time for you guys to come by and meet her.”

“Awesome!”

Quinn arranged the crepes on a plate and topped them with the banana slices. Brittany pulled a carrying tray out of a low cabinet. Quinn put Rachel’s breakfast on it, refilled her coffee cup, and then filled Rachel’s loaded them onto the tray.

“I'm gonna go take a nice long shower,” Brittany said, adding, “with my music turned way up, so you guys can enjoy your breakfast.”

Quinn blushed once again and said, “Thanks, Britt.” Quinn picked up the tray careful not to spill any of the coffee, because that would just be a crime in her book. Carefully, she walked back down the hall and managed to maneuver the doorknob with only two fingers on her left hand. When the door opened she saw Rachel begin to stir and one of her amazingly perfect breasts came uncovered. Quinn was thankful when some manner of bass-heavy music came thumping through the walls. “Well, good morning, beautiful.”

Rachel looked at her and said, “You have too many clothes on.”

“I had to have them on to make breakfast,” Quinn said crossing the room to set the tray on the nightstand.

“Breakfast looks made to me,” Rachel observed, “and beautifully so, might I add and, yet you still have on all these clothes.” Quinn just chuckled and pushed the waistband of the pajama pants down letting them drop to the floor then pulled the tank top overhead and let it join the pants. “Much better,” she said, “so we’re sharing a plate of vegan crepes, which are my favorite, by the way?”

“No,” Quinn said, “You’re having your favorite breakfast and I'm having what I'm sure is about to become my favorite breakfast.”

“Which is?” Rachel asked.

Quinn leaned over and grabbed the blanket and pulled it back to expose Rachel’s mouth watering, pussy soaking beautiful naked body. “You,” Quinn said with a devilish smile.


End file.
